The SEC has filed a lawsuit against Justin Sun, founder of the Tron project, and his companies for the alleged unregistered sale of securities in the form of cryptocurrencies.
The SEC claims that TRX coins and BTT tokens are securities and that Sun engaged in market manipulation to stimulate public interest in these cryptocurrencies with the help of celebrities.
The lawsuit alleges that celebrities were paid to promote TRX and BTT without disclosing their payments, misleading consumers into believing that they had an unbiased interest in the cryptocurrencies.
The unregistered sale of TRX and BTT resulted in at least 600,000 trades and more than $31 million in sales, according to the SEC.
The SEC’s Director of Enforcement, Gurbir Grewal, emphasized that the agency cannot stand by when it comes to protecting investors and that Sun and his accomplices used an age-old method of defrauding investors by offering securities without registration and without complying with disclosure requirements, and then manipulating the market for these securities. Justin Sun has previously denied any illegal activity.